Badoo Appoints Benjamin Ling As Chief Operating Officer

LONDON, April 19, 2012 - Badoo, the world’s largest social network for meeting new people, has appointed former Google executive Benjamin Ling as COO, as the company continues its global expansion and growth across mobile and Web platforms.

As COO, Ling will oversee product, engineering, business operations, partnerships and corporate development. He will play a key role in pushing forward Badoo's global growth. With more than 147 million registered users around the world, and over 60 percent year-on-year growth, the company is expanding rapidly in new markets, including the U.S., where it already has eight million users, and across the mobile platform, with its popular iPhone and Android apps.

Ling joins Badoo from Google, where he was Product Management Director of Search Products and Local Business Products. His tenure at Google spanned multiple roles, including leading Google’s search products (Images, Videos, Books, News, Finance) and Local Business products, to building Google’s Commerce products (Google Checkout and Product Search) from the ground up. He also served as Director of Partnerships and Platform at YouTube, during a time of rapid growth for the Google-owned online video property.

Ling also previously worked at Facebook, where as Director of Platform, he oversaw product management and marketing, developer operations and partner solutions for the Facebook Platform, including Facebook Connect, which has helped Facebook grow across the Web.

He holds a Ph.D. and MS in Computer Science from Stanford, and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a minor in Business from UC Berkeley.

Ling will begin his new role at Badoo in May, based at the company’s London headquarters.

“It’s wonderful to be working with someone of Ben’s pedigree as we embark on the next phase of Badoo’s growth, including international expansion into key markets such as the U.S.”, said Andrey Andreev, founder of Badoo. “Ben shares my passion for building high-growth businesses, and with his background leading teams at some of the world’s most successful Internet companies, he is the right person to help us maximize the huge opportunities ahead of us.”

“Badoo is at an incredibly exciting point in its growth and is transforming the way that people meet and socialize — a powerful proposition considering our increasingly busy lives”, said Ling. “One of the things that attracted me to Badoo is its mainstream appeal. Badoo is putting the “social” back into social networking, and it’s doing it on a massive scale. To me, that’s a thrilling opportunity.”

“Ben’s role will be critical in ensuring Badoo continues its rapid pace of development and user acquisition as we expand into new markets, and build on our monetization efforts”, commented Amit Shafrir, president at Badoo. “We proved the strength of our business model early on, and now look to expand across new geographies and platforms, with a heavy focus on mobile. Ben’s experience will undoubtedly be a huge asset to us as we do this.”